Christopher West has a great column up at the Theology of the Body Institute on Sex, Happiness and the Presidential Election:

it seems to me that “what divides America” are two competing ideas of human happiness. Both have enormous and divergent personal, social, moral, cultural, economic, and political implications. And the pivot is what we do with the basic fact that sex leads to babies.

One idea says that the key to human happiness is to sever sex from fertility. Once we are free to indulge our sexual urges without the burden and “punishment” (as Obama – perhaps in a slip of the tongue – put it) of children, we will find the earthly paradise for which we all long. The other competing idea is that human happiness, instead, comes from embracing – with all its required sacrifices – the most natural and beautiful result of sex: the family.

Sometime during the twentieth century, our nation – at least the majority of those in academia, the media, and politics – bought into the sever-sex-from-babies version of happiness. In turn, these influencers systematically injected this belief into our educational system, entertainment, and legislation. Obama is a card-carrying member of this program. By and large, those who hold the same views elected him president.

Much is at stake in our understanding of sex and fertility. Our choices here have the power to orient – not just individuals, but entire nations – towards respect for human life, or towards its utter disregard. Indeed, our sexual choices – for good or for ill – are, ultimately, what shape the world in which we live.

Read more from the article and see a related post of mine, Sexual Unions Shape History